Pakistan May Be Standing in Way of Polio's Eradication

The Atlantic Wire's Uri Friedman reports on an uptick in polio cases in Pakistan—a trend that suggests the country might be the last safe harbor for the disease:

Several Pakistani news outlets today are dissecting a troubling finding
from the U.N. Children's Fund: the 63 cases of polio diagnosed in the
country so far this year are nearly double the 36 detected during the
same period last year. The highly contagious viral disease,
which attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death,
is most evident in the province of Balochistan and has now spread to
other areas that haven't been infected for the past five years. The
U.N., which is trying to eradicate the disease by delivering oral
vaccines to children, says that these findings suggest Pakistan could
be the "last polio reservoir worldwide"--the country standing in the
way of eliminating only the second global epidemic disease after smallpox.